We live on a 300 year old lava flow and use nooks and deep places to plant...or we get a BobCat in to break up the lava and make holes for trees. The only 'dirt' we get is old volcanic ash from the old sugarcane industry that is depleated of anything but residues of nasty stuff.

50% of my time is spent making good soil to grow in, or ameliorating the already planted areas.

I am learning a lot about Biochar which we are involved with the production of. It is really a marvelous element!!!

1 gram of Biochar (charcoal) has the surface area of a Tennis Court and it is, essentially, a blank slate as it has no 'nutrition' in it. It DOES however, hold anything you soak it in...

I soak mine in Fish Fertilizer and molassas with a bit of EM or IMO. When added at about 10-20% to my planting medium, the biochar releases slowly. It is great because in heavy rain it wont leach.... The differences in plants are amazing. Adding it to your compost is brilliant...and the micro organisms love to hang out in it. Such a simple ingredient.

EM = Effective Micro organisms and you can read about it at http://www.EMamerica.com. This is a cocktail of micro organisms already assembled. Good stuff.

IMO=Indigenous Micro Organisms. These are micro organisms you collect through a process and they are relative to THAT particular spot where yu collect them!!! It is part of the Natural Farming methods from Korea.

I can get pretty bogged down in those Korean techniques. I used to read those Bokashi threads for growing organisms and did my own types of brews. I am not a purist in anything. But I'll gratefully read that link you posted. Thank you.

Stormy...BioChar is just charcoal....hard woods that are burned with little Oxygen so there isn't a big flame and it doesn't become ash. NOT the briquets .... if you have charred logs from a fireplace or woodstove, you can use them...pound it so it is in fine pieces like a pea. Lots of times when a wood stove is tamped down for the nght, in the morning there is charcoal...not ash...yu can use that.

Biochar itself has no N (don't know about the P)... But if you compost it, it will take on all of the goody stuff from the compost and store/release it. That's why it is so good soaked because it acks like a slow release fertilizer..

Ya' know...it could go either way. I use the soaked Biochar PLUS compost mixed with 'dead dirt'...soaking it and adding it to the compost...? Let me ask DH...chemical engineer...cheech...remembers the small stuff!!!

This forum is for anyone interested in learning or teaching about Improving and Amending Soil to come forth and share....have FUN. I feel more and more we are going to be turning to our land to support us, and we all need to help.
Enjoy.